NEW BEDFORD — The owner of a longtime North End butcher shop filed for bankruptcy in December, about two months after the store closed without warning, angering customers who held thousands in gift vouchers.

A meeting for creditors of Normand's Meat Specialties is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. Jan. 15 at 155 West Elm St. in Brockton.

The store owes about $148,175 to 60 creditors holding unsecured nonpriority claims, including meat suppliers as well as members of the store's popular meat clubs, according to Chapter 7 Bankruptcy filings dated Dec. 14. The exact value of the claims of meat club members is “unknown,” it says.

The shop, which opened in 1965, earned $1.5 million in 2010, a number that dropped to $1.4 in 2011 and $1.1 million before Oct. 26, the date the owners decided to file for bankruptcy, according to the petition.

“The business was losing money,” said owner Richard Despres, 38, of Wareham, who took over from his father in late 2007. “I know there's a lot of talk about how we walked away with money, but that's far from the truth.

“Throughout this whole thing there was definitely no intent to take advantage of a single customer,” he added. “There are a lot of people that lost a lot here.”